ASSOCIATION DENTISTRY IS ESSENTIAL … SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? On October 19, 2020, the American Dental Association’s (ADA’s) House of Delegates passed Resolution 84H-2020, which states that oral health is an integral component of systemic health. The resolution also explains that dentistry is essential health care because of its role in evaluating, diagnosing, preventing, or treating the oral diseases that can affect systemic health. The House ratified an interim policy that was created by the ADA Board of Trustees earlier in the year as part of our efforts to advocate for dentistry and oral health during the COVID-19 pandemic. 84H-2020 Resolved, that the profession of dentistry is essential and defined as the evaluation, diagnosis, prevention and/ or treatment (nonsurgical, surgical or related procedures) of diseases, disorders and/or conditions of the oral cavity, craniomaxillary area and/or the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body, provided by dentists, within the scope of their education, training and experience, in accordance with the ethics of the profession and applicable law, and be it further Resolved, that dentistry is essential and should remain an independent health care profession that safeguards, promotes and provides care for the health of the public, which may be in collaboration with other health care professionals. The policy statement is sound and, coupled with the ADA’s advocacy efforts, has been helpful in prioritizing dentistry to receive much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) and securing financial help for dentists’ returning to practice. The early weeks of the pandemic—when dentistry paused, and patients were unable to access all except urgent and emergency dental care—underscored the importance of preventive and routine oral health care. The fragility of our general and oral health care infrastructure became clear to our members, our patients, the dental industry, and policy makers on the state level and in our nation’s capital. The ADA has successfully traversed the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that our most crucial frustrations associated with the pandemic have passed and dentistry is for the most part nearing prepandemic volumes, • Are we still essential, and what does that mean? • Is oral health care essential? 8
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• Is oral health care essential to overall health? • Is oral health care essential to everyone? • Is oral health care essential to dentists and the business of dentistry? Of course … all are true. I see oral health care as integral to and an essential component of overall health. Conversely, I consider overall health and the many exogenous factors that contribute to it to be essential to achieving oral health. I have heard from many upset member dentists and volunteer leaders who, despite their assertion that dentistry is “essential,” want the ADA to “swim only in our lane.” Their opinion is that if it does not happen in the mouth or in a clinical dental facility, our association should not engage in it. Let us talk about “essential.” Dictionaries define it as “absolutely necessary” and “extremely important.” Not much room for debate there. If we apply that definition to the policy passed by the House, the essential nature of dentistry extends well beyond the mouth and into the environments, both physical and social, that exist outside our offices. If we believe what we say, we should be engaged wherever opportunities exist to improve the oral and general health care of the public. The policy’s first resolving clause describes the broad scope of our profession and its relationship to the human body. Not mouth—body. The second resolving clause reiterates November / December 2021
